APPENDIX.] FISH -GUANO. 49*7 



the system of M. de Molon ; it dries rapidly, regularly, and with 

 comparatively small expenditure of heat, since 100 kilogrammes 

 (220 Ibs.) of coal a day are sufficient for heating the coccle ; and the 

 continuity of its action is perfect. 



" According as the dried fish is withdrawn from the chambers it 

 is thrown into a heap, on a board close by, from which it is put 

 with a shovel into the mill-hopper by a child. The mill reduces it 

 to a sufficiently fine and perfectly dry powder, which is at once put 

 in sacks or casks, and sealed in order that there may be no means 

 of adulterating it. 



" To any one acquainted with the processes and machinery em- 

 ployed in the manufacture of beet-sugar, it will at once be evident 

 that the organisation of the process just described was the result of 

 an acquaintance with that manufacture. This is another instance 

 of the benefits conferred upon France by the beet-sugar industry, 

 for to that branch of manufacture it may be truly said to owe the 

 rise of its present manufacturing system. A branch of industry 

 requiring a combination of chemical and mechanical skill carried on 

 in the midst of a rural population, especially if connected with 

 agriculture, has far more influence upon the permanent prosperity of 

 a people materially and intellectually, than the greatest branch of 

 industry entirely confined to the civic population. 



" To carry on all the operations just described, only six men are 

 employed at Concarneau, who receive about Is. a day, and ten 

 children, who receive from sixpence to sevenpence. Under those 

 conditions, and without working at night, this factory is capable, as 

 we have already remarked, of producing from four to five tons of 

 dry manure a day, representing about eighteen to twenty tons of fish 

 or offal ; that is, one hundred parts of fresh fish yield about twenty- 

 two parts of fish -powder. By working at night, which will be done 

 during the ensuing year, when the fishery shall have been better 

 organised, this establishment will be able to produce from eight to 

 ten tons of manure. M. de Molon estimates the number of days 

 in the year during which the fishermen could fish at from 200 to 

 250. In only counting 200 working days, the establishment at 

 Concarneau could thus produce from 1600 to 2000 tons of manure 

 annually, which, at the rate of three cwts. per statute acre, would 

 suffice to manure from 10,000 to 13,000 acres of land, and would 



2K 



